Japanese Pop Artist Keiichi Tanaami Courts The Dark And Surreal In New Large Scale Paintings

Notoriously awe-inspiring Japanese pop artist Keiichi Tanaami has featured some spectacular new works in his show Cherry Blossoms Falling In The Evening Gloom. Since 2010, Tanaami has focused his energy toward the creation of large scale paintings focusing on prominent elements of his childhood, living in wartime Japan. The comic-like characterization of bombs, Mickey Mouse, and war planes, spin together his chaotic dreamscapes, full of hypnotic colors, patterns, and a nearly mirage-like quality.

An excerpt from the exhibition, at Nanzuka Gallery in Tokyo, details the symbolic elements within his work:

“Glowing, grotesque creatures personify bombs and the light of their explosions. Beams of emanating light are the searchlights of Japanese troops keeping watch for American bomber planes. The skeletal monsters that appear in his works represent war casualties, and at the same time function as figures of us, ourselves, who know no fear. A recurring character based on a motif that comes from Tanaami’s wartime memory of goldfish also frequently appears in his works, and is deeply connected to the sight of the light from the American bombs reflecting off of the scales of the goldfish his grandfather kept. Pine trees, seemingly pregnant with animal-like life forms, are based on hallucinations Tanaami witnessed when he nearly died from a pulmonary edema at age.” (Excerpt from Source)

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